Dry eye symptoms improve with single TearCare treatment
Treatment with a single TearCare (TC) procedure was found to significantly alleviate the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease (DED) in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), according to a study. At 1-month follow-up, TearCare’s safety and effectiveness profile was equivalent to LipiFlow (LF) treatment.
In this randomized controlled trial, 135 patients with MGD were included and treated with either TC treatment (n =67) or a single LF treatment (n = 68).
One month after treatment there were significant improvements (P < 0.0001) in mean tear film breakup time in the TC and LF groups (3.0 ± 4.4 and 2.6 ± 3.3, respectively) and meibomian gland secretion scores (11.2 ± 11.1 and 11.0 ± 10.4, respectively).
In the TC and LF groups, mean eye dryness significantly reduced by 35.4 ± 34.1 and 34.9 ± 26.9, respectively; Symptom Assessment in Dry by 38.2 ± 31.0 and 38.0 ± 25.9, respectively; and Ocular Surface Disease Index scores by 27.9 ± 20.5 and 23.4 ± 17.7, respectively.
No statistically significant differences were found between the groups for any result. There was, however, numerically greater improvements consistently demonstrated in the TC group for all signs and symptoms.
Three patients in the TC group and 4 patients in the LF group reported device-related ocular events.
Reference
Gupta PK, Holland EJ, Hovanesian J, et al. TearCare for the Treatment of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction in Adult Patients With Dry Eye Disease: A Masked Randomized Controlled Trial. Cornea. 2021;doi: 10.1097/ICO.0000000000002837. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34581297.
